9 episodes
It Takes A Village: Our Path to Leo Alex Ammons
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- Society & Culture
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5.0 • 10 Ratings
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We’ve all heard the saying: it takes a village to raise a child. For new daddies Brian and Ty, their village needed to be formed well before any children arrived. This docuseries chronicles their love story from their meeting at Gay Disney, through the circuitous route of family planning, donor-seeking, and surrogacy, and ultimately to their little love Leo. This series is a love letter to the village that made Leo’s life possible and will be enjoyed by anyone who loves Brian and Ty, enjoys a feel-good story or wants insight into family planning - queer otherwise.
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Chapter 8: How The World Views Gay Dads (Plus: Do's and Don't's)
In their first ten months of fatherhood, Brian and Ty have fielded many questions and comments from kind individuals hoping to connect with their experience - and sometimes, these comments are assuming and harmful. How does the world view gay dads - both consciously and unconsciously? Brian and Ty talk about what it's been like to field questions, be in the world with their new baby, and give some practical suggestions for how to be in the conversation of family planning with friends and acquaintances.
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Chapter 7: Dancin' On My Own
At long last, it's here: the birth of Leo.
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Chapter 6: Transfer Day
After many starts and stops, the big day arrives: the transfer of the genetic material into Amber's womb. Also included in the episode: advice for budding relationships between surrogates and parents-to-be, a visit to Kalispell, and how Amber and Luke talked to their own children about the process of surrogacy.
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Chapter 5: Surrogate Number Three
After multiple heartbreaks on the roller coaster of building their family, Brian and Ty work through the loss of Ty's genetic material. We hear how their family plans changed and finally meet their third-time's-a-charm, Surrogate #3: Amber.
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Chapter 4: All About Surrogacy
This is an episode for folks who want to know more about the details of surrogacy, specifically around legal protections for the surrogate and expecting parents. Guest Judith Hoescsht, Esq. joins to discuss ART law, why Colorado laws are the most comprehensive in the country, and why protection laws are essential. She also shares her personal story and why she is such a passionate advocate for surrogacy.
Learn more about Judith Hoechst and ART law here. -
Chapter 3: Filling The Bus
If your family planning journey were a bus, who would you want to be in it? This episode is all about filling your bus - topics covered include choosing a donor, choosing a surrogacy, and the different configurations of how one could have a family. Brian and Ty talk about their own process of filling their bus, why asking questions is essential, and why they prioritized a great relationship with their gestational carrier.
Customer Reviews
Fantastic!
We are fortunate to be part of Brian, Ty, and Leo’s extended family and this podcast really highlighted their loving and generous spirits. Leo is adored by all who have met him! I’m sure that this podcast will be of great value to all who are seeking to have a child to love.
Thank You For Fueling My Hope
My husband and I have been on our surrogacy journey for a year now and let me tell you, we have been through the cycles of emotions over and over so far. From excitement and joy, to worry, to frustration and disappointment, and rinse and repeat.
I resonate so much with Brian and Ty while listening to them tell their story. In fact so much of what my husband and I have gone through so far is so similar to their story.
Our friend, who reignited our spark to start a family, said she would be our surrogate. Her husband was in agreement with this plan which we were so grateful for, but we had to wait a year for her twin boys to be a year old before she was able to move forward.
Once we started doing the work up, she was cleared for just about everything except one thing. She needed to see an endocrinologist specialist because her thyroid levels were off. They thought it would be no big deal, just a precaution. The specialist appointment had to be pushed out months for several reasons but ultimately it concluded that she has Graves’ disease and she could not be pregnant for about a year or more due to the treatment she needed.
A year passed and we were SO close to transfer but this diagnosis just blew up that plan. Disheartening to say the least. However we’re not completely starting from scratch because during the wait time for the endocrinologist appointment we found our egg donor and created two viable embryos. Exciting!!!
The blow that came with the process of creating these embryos was finding out right before we were to fertilize, btw we both wanted to split the eggs and fertilize with the hopes he and I would both have one baby each with our donor, was the discovery that my husband had a balanced translocation chromosomal issue. This could make it extremely difficult to reproduce.
Ultimately, after discussing with our doctor, we decided to move forward with splitting the fertilization in the hopes we’d get lucky and my husband would end up with a viable embryo or two. Plus we did not want him to NOT try and always wonder ‘what if’. The one embryo he did create was not viable after the testing. The news hit us both really hard and as Brian and Ty said, we needed to reimagine our story because the family we imagined we’d be able to create was now not possible… at this time.
We have both mourned that original story, processed, and embraced our new story. Our friend ,who could no longer continue the surrogacy journey with us, had twin boys we spent a lot of time with, and we both fell in love with them. My husband said “if I can love these boys as much as I do, and they’re not even ours, just imagine when they are ours. There is more to what makes a family than being genetically connected.”
So here we are now, also in Denver Colorado, with two embryos and in search of a surrogate. We have an appointment with an agency next week so we’ll see how that goes. One thing we have learned so far is that we HAVE TO just take one step at a time because absolutely nothing is certain during this process.
Thank you SO MUCH Brian and Ty for sharing your story!! I can’t express enough how much you have helped me. You guys have truly breathed new life into my soul and refueled my hope for what can be. I appreciate you both and wish you and your beautiful family a lifetime of wonderful.
Extremely informative And insightful
I’ve been treating couples with fertility issues for nearly 27 years. I’ve also gone through fertility treatment with my own partner. Yet never before have I so deeply appreciated what my same-sex make patients go through to create their families. Listening to this podcast has heightened my awareness of the issues faced by my own patients. In fact, I have been encouraging other professionals in reproductive medicine to also listen to this enlightening and personal journey. Thank you for sharing!